Recycler starting to tire of idea

After all the opposition and given the cost of getting resource consent, Te Rino Rapana is not sure whether to carry on with his tyre recycling business in Wanganui's rural Brunswick Rd.

He has been collecting end-of-life tyres and storing them at number 77, with the aim of getting them processed into a product with many uses. He's leasing the property, with an option to buy it.

Horizons Regional Council said in August that his Farmcorp business can't store any more tyres there without resource consent. Council staff have been inspecting the site every week to two weeks, a spokeswoman said. They have not found new tyres there.

Mr Rapana said he had taken 10 truckloads away, and they were now being used by farmers for storing silage. He hasn't applied for resource consent, and is not sure whether he will. He's still collecting tyres, but not storing them in Brunswick Rd.

Neighbours and others have feared Mr Rapana will abandon the site, and leave the public to pay for the expensive approved disposal process for the tyres.

A Horizons spokeswoman said the leaseholder, Mr Rapana, or the landowner, John Abbott, would be responsible for removing the tyres if the site was abandoned.